Archives

PLOTTO: THE MASTER CONTEST OF ALL PLOTS, Week 3

“FIRST AID TO TROUBLED WRITERS,” the Boston Globe announced in September 1928—“GRINDS OUT PLOTS WITHOUT ANY FALSE START.”

Calling all writers who are obsessed with plot and obsessives who can write a mean story. We want you!

THE RULES:

Every Wednesday we will post a prompt from William Wallace Cook’s classic how to manual Plotto: The Mater Book of All Plots. Simply use the prompt below to write your own original 500 word (or less) story.

In the book, {A}= a male protagonist. {B}= a female protagonist but for our purposes, feel free to write from the point of view of any gender.

Mini-Plottos, 500 words or fewer, must be submitted by the following Monday at 5:00 PST. Send to: theopenbar@tinhouse.com with PLOTTO CONTEST as the subject line.

Winners will be announced each Wednesday and will receive a hardcover copy of Plotto, online publication on the Tin House Blog and be entered in the Final Master Plot Challenge.

Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots

A classic how-to manual, William Wallace Cook’s Plotto is one writer’s personal method, painstakingly diagrammed for the benefit of others. The theory itself may be simple—“Purpose, opposed by Obstacle, yields Conflict”—but Cook takes his “Plottoist” through hundreds of situations and scenarios, guiding the reader’s hand through a dizzying array of “purposes” and “obstacles.”

Hi, was the pugilist prompt due yesterday or today? I wrote on it, but am a bit confused about the date it’s due and where to email it to. Is this site due for an update I guess? I thought there was a new contest each week. Thanks!

Hi,
The date closest to the announcement of WEEK 3’s contest is 15 Feb 2012, so, should I assume that the “prompt” was “answered” this past Monday, the 20th, and cast the hazard-prone male from my thoughts? Or is the above “prompt” for THIS week, the 22nd, and someone forgot to change the date under “PLOTTO: THE MASTER CONTEST OF ALL PLOTS, Week 3”? On the other hand, my brain is often addled–is it me? Thank you.